Why NSC must reset National Sports Festival

As you read this column, the zonal eliminations in team sports for the 2025 National Sports Festival (NSF) would have ended across six centres. The qualifiers organised by the custodians of the NSF, the National Sports Commission (NSC), began on Wednesday at Damaturu, Kaduna, Jos, Ibadan, Benin City and Enugu which served as centres for […]

As you read this column, the zonal eliminations in team sports for the 2025 National Sports Festival (NSF) would have ended across six centres. The qualifiers organised by the custodians of the NSF, the National Sports Commission (NSC), began on Wednesday at Damaturu, Kaduna, Jos, Ibadan, Benin City and Enugu which served as centres for states that fall under North East, North West, North Central, South West, South South and South East respectively.

So, for three days, athletes converged on the six centres to josttle for tickets to represent their states in team events namely football; handball; volleyball; beach volleyball; cricket, abula, hockey, and basketball at the 22nd NSF to be staged in Abeokuta, Ogun State, in May.

The NSF, a multi-sports event which is Nigeria’s version of the Olympics, debuted in 1973 at the National Stadium in Surulere, Lagos. Conceived as a unifying tool following the end of the Nigerian Civil War in 1970, the biennial sports festival also serves as an avenue for talent discovery and development. Although the NSF is supposed to be staged biennially, in recent years, it has become inconsistent because host states usually struggle to keep to the scheduled dates.

A very good example is Ogun State which is obviously finding it hard to host the 22nd edition of the games. It is an open secret that due to the inability of the state to put its house in order for the event, the 2025 NSF has been postponed for more than three times already. It is now scheduled for May 16-30. Still, this new date is not sacrosanct because the choice of Ibadan as venue for South West zonal elimination is an indication that Ogun is still battling to put in place the required facilities. If this were not so, Abeokuta would have used the zonal eliminations to test run its facilities and organisational ability.

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The good news, however, is that amidst the gloom, the NSC has begun the process to ensure that the sports festival is staged in May. The conclusion of the zonal eliminations, is therefore, a significant step towards ensuring that the games are held this year. However, even as the NSC should be commended for organising the zonal qualifiers, it must be stated that it wasn’t devoid of the usual fire-brigade approach. Organising matches in seven different sports for both men and women within such a short period of time must have been a daunting challenge for the host states and the technical officials.

Therefore, the organisation must have fallen short in some areas. Apart from that, some states couldn’t attend the zonal eliminations. This explains why in Enugu where the South-eastern states converged, there were so many walk-overs. This type of unfortunate situation is no doubt as a result of the nonchalant attitude of some state governors towards sports.

While the present leadership of the NSC under Malam Shehu Dikko is working towards showcasing its capacity to organise the best-ever NSF, it is imperative to call on the commission to urgently deploy its RHINSE mantra to restore the lost glory of the National Sports Festival.

For those who may not know, the acronym RHINSE stands for Renewed Hope Initiative for Nigeria’s Sports Economy. It is a bold move by the new NSC to transform Nigeria’s sports industry through the Reset, Refocus and Relaunch (RRR) initiative which seeks to reset Nigerian sports eco-system from competition-driven to developmental-driven and value-added industry. In order to actualise this lofty plan for sports, the NSC is said to be consulting, discussing and sharing ideas with the relevant stakeholders to deliver on its mandate.

Since the NSC is committed to resetting Nigerian sports on the path of sustainable development, I want to advise it to take a critical look at the NSF with a view to addressing some of the problems that have bedevilled the games. Over the years, the sports festival which used to be a talent breeding ground has been bastardised to the extent that it no longer serves the purpose for which it was instituted.

For instance, the bizarre decision to throw the NSF open has been a contentious and a major setback that must be addressed without further delay. Although steps have been taken to either reduce or regulate the participation of foreign athletes, allowing the NSF to be an all-comers affair will continue to stifle the growth of budding athletes. This is because it will take a miracle for a local athlete to beat someone like Tobi Amusan in the women’s 100m hurdles. Even if the former world champion is blindfolded and her opponents allowed to start the race before her, she will still coast to victory in style. Such victory will further damage the confidence of her inexperienced opponents.

So, leaving the festival wide open gives undue advantage to oil-rich states like Delta, Rivers and Edo states which have the financial muscle to fly in foreign athletes to represent them. However, this is not to undermine the efforts being made by these states to develop sports in their domains. As a matter of fact, Delta State has remained the hub of sports in Nigeria because it is inarguably the state with the highest number of sports facilities of international standard.

Against this background, the right thing for the NSC to do is to further reexamine the current eligibility rules of the NSF. The primary objective of the festival which is to unearth hidden talents must not be sacrificed on the altar of victory. As a matter of fact, Nigeria’s only individual goal medallist, Chioma Ajunwa and her compatriots like Mary Onyali-Omagbemi, Falilat Osheku-Ogunkoya, Faith Idehen, Charity Opara-Thompson, Beatrice Utondu and a host of others who had illustrious careers while representing Nigeria were discovered at the National Sports Festival. The NSF still has the potential to unearth hidden talents, if returned to its original format.

It is truly difficult to understand what those who conceived the idea to throw open the NSF were thinking, or what they wanted to achieve. There is no single benefit in encouraging foreign based professionals to come back and compete against amateur athletes in the NSF. Some may argue that the presence of such pros will inspire the younger athletes, but in my candid opinion, the local athletes will always suffer defeats that would only extinguish their confidence.

Unfortunately, after losing to their more experienced counterparts, some of these athletes turn attention to the National Youth Games (NYG) for solace. This is why the cadet sports festival which is for primary and secondary school students is now hijacked by over-aged athletes.

Therefore, the NSC should as a matter of urgency, relaunch the NSF to make it an exclusive event for upcoming athletes, if it has not done so. It is necessary to reiterate that talent discovery should be the primary aim of Games.